


The bucket list

by Universe4200



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bucket List, Steven bonds with people, Steven has fun, Steven makes new friends, Steven meets new people, Steven tries new human things, cuteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Universe4200/pseuds/Universe4200
Summary: Steven gets the idea to create a bucket list by his therapist, and makes one with the slight help of Connie.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Kudos: 13





	1. The making of the list

Steven sat on his bed, alongside Connie. Connie was reading a novel for school while Steven surfed the web idly. Steven sighed as he slumped further into the bed, aleting Connie to him and away from her novel.

“Something the matter?” Connie asked curiously.

“No, it’s nothing,” Steven answered un-reassuringly, as he avoided eye contact.

Connie doggie eared the page she was currently on, slowly shutting her book and placing it beside her on the bed. 

“Come on Steven, tell me what’s on your mind,” Connie advised with a gentle smile that made Steven’s pulse skip a beat.

“O-okay, well my therapist advised me to try creating a bucket list to try and help me try new human things,” Steven started with a defeated shrug.

“And?” Connie said, trying to get Steven to continue.

“-And, well I have no idea how to start the list or even what to put on it. I mean I know the meaning of the list and what it’s all about because my therapist told me what it was but we ran out of time when he was telling me about it that I couldn’t get any suggestions,” Steven whispered, almost embarrassed at his unscholarlyness.

Connie placed a hand on Steven’s shoulder tenderly.

“I can help you with that Steven. And there are a bunch of ideas on the internet that you can look at and decide for yourself,” Connie eagerly chirped as she grabbed Steven’s cell phone right from his light grip.

Steven watched as she brought up an internet tab and typed something in. She then turned the screen and lightly dropped the phone in Steven’s palm. Steven glanced at the screen.

“There’s many things humans eventually want to fulfill in their lives, both mundane and simple things to large and crazy things,” Connie announced helpfully.

“Can you give me a few ideas to start with?” Steven asked hopefully.

“Of course, Steven. I used to have a bucket list myself, but it’s been a while since I’ve worked on it. Some simple ideas could be, reading 50 new books, Try ice skating, Try roller blading, Meditate, create a blog, build a bookshelf from scratch, bake all day long. Now some crazy-ish more big things people usually add are like, swim with dolphins, swim with sharks, ride a camel, climb a mountain, go cave hiking, bungee jumping, skydiving, zip lining, and riding a hot air balloon.”

Steven nodded along, only knowing some of the things that Connie had listed, he would have to look up what the others were exactly.

Things started running through his head, a smile slowly appearing on his lips.

“Thanks Connie! I’m going to start looking some things up and jotting things down!” Steven announced excitedly as he sat up straight, his fingers flying at the little keyboard on his phone.

“You’re welcome Steven, don’t be shy to stop me from reading if you have any questions,” Connie assured Steven.

Steven flashed her a wide smile for a second before he turned his head back down to his phone as he started typing once again with a fleeting, “thanks Connie, I will.”

Connie ended up leaving for home a few hours later, finishing four chapters in her book and helped explain a few things to Steven and come up with a few ideas. Steven even agreed to have her tag along with some of the items on his bucket list, which got Steven a bit more excited to do them.

Later that very same night, Steven ended up physically writing his bucket list out, filling a few sheets of paper. He couldn’t wait to try out this whole experiencing new adventures and new things.


	2. Go bowling with dad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven goes bowling with his father, the first thing to cross off on his bucket list

Steven had walked from the beach house to the car wash, the weather was nice out. Steven was excited because last night he had called his father about going bowling with him, the first thing on his bucket list. Luckily his father was willing to close the carwash for the day to bring him to his first bowling game in the next town over.

Steven ran into the carwash parking lot, smiling at seeing his father sitting in his old lawn chair he usually lounged in while he sat in the sun, waiting for customers. 

“Hey dad!” Steven called out happily as he waved his hand, speeding up towards his father.

“Hey Steven, are you ready to get going?” Greg asked as soon as Steven was close enough.

“Yeah! I can’t wait, I’ve watched some videos of people bowling and it looks like fun,” Steven exclaimed happily as he flopped his arms.

Greg chuckled although he had an air of sadness to him.

Greg felt bad, almost depressed for never introducing Steven to fun sports, never giving Steven the chance to attend them after he, himself, was forced to for his whole life.

Greg hefted himself up and out of the chair he was sitting in previously, grabbing it and folding it up, storing it in the back of his van.

“Let’s get going then kiddo,” Greg said as he clapped Steven on the shoulder, pulling him into a side hug.

Steven beamed and then got in the passenger side of the van while Greg got in the driver's seat.

After twenty minutes of driving and four minutes sitting in a construction site, they had finally slowed and turned into a parking lot of a nice bowling alley parking lot. There were eight other cars in the parking lot, letting Greg know that it wasn’t as packed as he thought it was.

Greg pulled into a spot and slowed to a stop, cutting the car off, pulling his keys out and pocketing them.

“Are you ready to give bowling a try?” Greg asked as he got out, shutting his door behind him.

Steven got out and met with Greg in the back of the van with a small smile.

“Yeah I think so?” Steven voiced, sounding more like a question than a statement.

Greg nudged his shoulder with a warm smile of his own.

“I feel like you actually might like it,” Greg thought outloud, giving it some thought as they slowly walked to the entrance of the bowling alley, named ‘pin pounders’.

Greg opened the door and let Steven walk in first, following in behind Steven. Steven slowed his pace so that Greg was in front of him, which made Greg wonder if Steven was unsure or shy about being somewhere so new, which didn’t seem like him.

Greg and Steven approached the front desk, music playing in the joint, the smell of pizza lingered in the air. Noises of pins being knocked down by bowling balls and cheering as well as kids screaming every once in a while could be heard distantly.

The guy at the front desk looked at them with a thin tight smile. He wore tan khakis, a blue and purple polo with the bowling place’s name on the left breast. He looked to be in his early thirties and had a swooping brown hairstyle which didn’t seem to fit him at all. His nametag read ‘Kyle’.

“Bowling for two please,” Greg stated.

“What size shoes, sir?” Kyle asked looking over at Greg.

“I’m a size six and a half, and-” Greg stopped talking, looking back at Steven. “What size sneaker are you Steven?” he asked.

Steven had only had two pairs of sneakers in his life, but currently his size was five.

“Five,” Steven said, fidgeting his hands together.

“So a six and a half and five,” Greg said looking back over at Kyle.

Kyle nodded and turned around to a huge shelf full of bowling shoes which Steven starred in awe at, he did not even notice all of those shoes back there until now.

Kyle grabbed the correct sizes in shoes and placed them down on the counter.

“It’s family bowl night, so that’ll be fifteen bucks,” Kyle robotically said.

Greg fished in his pocket handing over a twenty dollar bill. Kyle accepted it and pressed more buttons on the register making it ping open. He placed the money in before fishing out a five dollar bill and handing it to Greg.

Greg grabbed the shoes, handing Steven his shoes and holding his own.

“Come on, this way bud. There's a bench over there we can put these on at.”

Steven followed Steven and together they walked over to the bench, sitting down.

“You brought a pair of socks with you like I said, right?” Greg asked as he kicked off his flip flops, slipping a pair of socks out of his jeans pocket.

Steven pulled out a pair of socks from his sweater pocket with a nod, also kicking off his own flip flops. Both Greg and Steven put their socks on, then their bowling shoes, lacing them on.

“They have bowling lanes, a mini arcade room, bathrooms, and a snack bar,” Greg said, making conversation as Steven’s gaze went from side to side as he took in as much as he could.

“Hmmm,” Steven hummed as he continued looking around.

“You ready?” Greg asked as he stood up.

“Yeah,” Steven murmured softly.

Together they walked to the bowling lanes, picking the far left lane. There were five other families in other lanes, laughing happily as they chatted and played.

Greg went right up to this device setting in front of a couple of chairs and started pressing some buttons.

Steven sat in one of the red shiny chairs and watched what Greg was doing. Greg pointed up at a monitor and Steven noticed that Greg had typed their names into the monitor.

“Woah,” Steven breathed out, in awe once again.

“I’ll go first so that you can watch what I do. It’s pretty simple though,” Greg reassured Steven as he stood. 

Steven watched as Greg grabbed a pale blue bowling ball with dark blue spots all over it.

Greg walked over to Steven and showed him the ball.

“You put your thumb, pointer finger and middle finger in these holes,” Greg explained.

Steven nodded and watched as Greg walked up to a black line, not going past it, but standing right behind it. He swung his arm back and released the ball rolling down the alley. Steven followed the bowling ball with wide curious eyes and watched as the ball connected with the pins in the middle, it knocked down most of the pins, but not all of them.

Greg then walked back to Steven and typed a number into the machine.

“Now it’s your turn!” Greg exclaimed excitedly.

Steven looked unsure but he approached the balls and grabbed a purple and black spotted ball. He turned it in a palm until he saw the three holes and stuck his fingers in just how Greg showed him to.

“Just don’t go past that black line son!” Greg shouted over the noise so that Steven could hear him.

Steven nodded as he watched his feet, stopping before the black line and looked up at the lane, the pins looking far off into the distance he gulped. Then he swung his arm back like he watched Greg do, and then released the ball. The ball went flying and with a thump, landed on the ground and rolled ever so slowly towards the pins. Steven watched with wide watchful eyes as the bowling ball knocked down six out of ten pins.

Steven took a step back before hesitantly walking back to Greg.

“Good job Schtu-ball,” Greg complimented with a grin.

“Was that good?” Steven asked unsure of himself.

“Of course it was Steven, it doesn’t matter how many pins you knock down, it only matters if you are enjoying yourself out there. Also a tip, try not to let the ball bounce or hit the ground too roughly. Ease it closer down to the ground on your next spin, alright?”

Steven nodded, keeping the advice in mind as he watched Greg roll again.

Greg rolled but the ball wound up in the gutter instead of actually hitting any of the pins.

“I haven’t rolled a gutter in years,” Greg chuckled.

“A gutter?”

“Yeah, it’s when the ball rolls into the side gutters, which is okay. Winning isn’t everything kid,” Greg supplied with a content smile.

The more Steven bowled, the more he seemed to let loose and actually have fun. After a full and fun game of bowling, Steven and Greg hit the arcade for a few minutes, and after that they hit up the snack bar, which they ordered an extra cheese pizza and some soda pops.

“I still cannot believe those three strikes you did in a row, it was very impressive,” Greg complimented Steven, making him beam happily at his father’s praise.

“I cannot believe you rolled four gutters in a row, that too was very impressive,” Steven said as he hopped on the heels of his feet.

“Did you have fun today?” Greg asked as he sat down on the bench to untie his bowling shoes, slipping them off with a sigh of relief. Once the shoes were off, next came the socks.

Steven, sitting beside him also started to pull off the shoes and socks and with a soft smile he replied, “I had a bunch of fun, I’m glad I learned of a bucket list. I’m going to try so many new things! Thanks for bringing me here and bowling with me dad.”

Greg slipped on his flip flops and wrapped an arm around Steven.

“I’m glad you had so much fun today Steven, it’s great seeing you enjoy yourself more often. Thanks for letting me join you.”

Steven could almost feel happy tears threatening to emerge from his eyes, so he pulled Greg in a crushing hug.

Later that night when Steven got home, he crossed off the very first thing on his list, go bowling with dad.

~~ Go bowling with dad ~~


End file.
